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28 June 2015, Sunday – ISTANBUL,

Istanbul LGBTI Pride Week completed its 23rd edition last Sunday. The Pride Parade which has been annually held since its first edition in 2003 is the final celebration of a week long pride week inIstanbul. This year, the 13th LGBTI Pride Parade was attacked bypolice forces at the command of the Governorate of Istanbul.

The ever since peaceful and colorful march of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans*, Intersex, and their allies was brutally attacked by the police forces using tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, and allowing violent Islamo-fascist groups with bats, knives, etc. to scare off Pride participants. The command was given by the Governorate of Istanbul who arbitrarily banned the Pride Parade at the very last moment without even informing the organizers. The reason brought into agenda is Ramadan.

The Islamo-fascist newspapers such as Yeni Akit, Vahdet, Milat, and a couple of wider mainstream media organs such as Star, Sabah, etc have been publishing a series of targeting, hate motivatedarticles and news about the Pride Parade and LGBTI organizations, activists as “perverts”, “deviated people”, “honor-less act in Ramadan”, etc.

The police attack started at around 16:30 (half an hour before the parade should have been taking place). The heavy use of water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets even inside of the places where participants wanted to secure themselves, caused several injuries. The police attack continued at night during the Pride Week Closure Party in The Mekan. Many people inside the arena were heavily effected by the intense tear gas thrown inside through the terrace.

LGBTI organizations and LGBTI Pride Week Committee published a declaration protesting against this unacceptable situation. You may find it in the attached file.

Kaos GL, TIHV (Turkey Human Rights Foundation), and IHD (Human Rights Association) declared their support and offered legal consultancy to every injured participant of the Pride Parade in order to bring all these cases into court to seek justice.

The LGBTI organizations, the Pride Committee, and the activists will have a meeting today in Istanbul at 18:00 to discuss about the situation and how to proceed.

There has also been online hate speech and targeting campaign against some of the participants whose photos are in circulation in the internet. The videos and photos of 3 trans women who protested (or just felt like) being naked are in circulation, yet. There has been some horrible calls from both within the trans community and others to execute these people. The movement is also trying to calm all these aggressions, right now.

[IL, USA]Protesters call attention to issues other than marriage
The 2015 Pride Parade was briefly held up the afternoon of June 28 when several protestors from the activist group #BlackOutPride staged a "die-in" at the corner of Halsted and Addison. Eight arrests were made in the incident, which held up the parade for about 15 minutes.
The protestors said that they were seeking to call attention to issues that had been neglected by the LGBT community in the push for marriage equality.

Today, the Istanbul LGBTI Pride was stopped by the Istanbul police. Several hours ago before the March started, all small streets to Istiklal Street, where the Pride March would take place, were shut by hundreds of policemen. At around 16:00 and on, when several groups arrived at these small streets, they were stopped by these policemen with no explanation. I personally have talked to these police officers as well as other activists, however nothing was provided to us as information. They all said: "This is the order we got from the Istanbul Governorship!"

Those people who started to gather at Taksim Square we also stopped by policemen not to enter the Istiklal Street. The talks between the MPs from CHP (main opposition party) and HDP AND the chiefs of the police couldn't solve the problem and the ban continued. During this time, the crowds at different small streets grew to thousandsand the police started to attack us, the marchers with teargas, water cannons and plastic bullets. Several LGBTI people got beaten up by the police. Several people have been injured severely and were taken to hospitals.

Several times, in our attempts to enter the Istiklal Street, the police targeted us with teargas, water cannons and plastic bullets. They never stopped. I tried to talk to police officers in order to be able "breath" at small streets where we were "locked", they just shouted at me and others to "shut up". Several people were beaten up in front of us. The Istiklal Street experienced the highest level of police violence, this time to LGBTI people.

Police still attacks several LGBTI people who throw out slogans for our rights on the streets... For the last 4 hours...

I have seen civilians at small streets around Istiklal, running behind the marchers to attack them. Several people were attacked by these people with sticks... As usual, police didn't protect the marchers against these attacks.

The reasoning is that the March was planned in Ramadan... However last year it was during Ramadan. Last week on Sunday, Trans Pride March took place, during Ramadan, too. Nothing happened so far... This has been the very first ban and attack on the March in the last 13 years... Turkish Government showed its undemocratic face...

I call on every human rights defender, NGO or others to share this news widely while protesting the Turkish Government. We, as LGBTI people deserve living as equal as others. Our right to assembly cannot be breached. We will not keep ourselves silent!

Kemalita

[Turkey]SUMMARY RESULTS OF THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSSEXUAL (LGBT) INDIVIDUALS IN TURKEY RESEARCH
Social and Economic Problems of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) Individuals in Turkey Research offers insight to social and economic problems that LGBT individuals face due to the discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. Results of the research report diverse forms of discrimination that LGBT individuals encounter in various domains of social policies including employment, health, education, income poverty, housing, participation in the social life, family and ageing. While reporting different forms of discrimination from the perspective of LGBT individuals, the research also demonstrates that the legal system falls short of tackling these forms of discrimination again in the eyes of LGBT individuals.

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